Last month, Mother Jonesbroke the story of Yonas Fikre. An American Muslim now living in Sweden, Fikre claims he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the US government’s request after refusing to become an informant for the FBI. On Tuesday, less than three weeks after Fikre’s allegations were made public, the Justice Department charged Fikre, his brother Dawit Woldehawariat, and a third man, Abrehaile Haile, with conspiring to hide $75,000 worth of money transfers to the UAE and Sudan from the government, all in violation of federal reporting requirements for large international financial transactions. Woldehawariat, Fikre’s brother, was also charged with failing to file a tax return in 2009 and 2010.

There are no allegations of terrorism associated with the charges.

Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer with the Council on American-Islamic Relations who has been working with Fikre, told Mother Jones on Wednesday that the federal charges were retaliation for Fikre’s refusal to cooperate with the FBI. “It is disappointing but not surprising that the FBI is retaliating against Yonas by filing specious charges against him after they promised to make his life difficult after he refused to become their informant,” Abbas wrote in an email. “While FBI agents lied to Yonas about many things, in this case, it seems that they have kept their word.”

Thomas Nelson, Fikre’s Portland, Oregon-based lawyer, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Tuesday that he was unaware of the charges against his client. But Abbas said he’s been in touch with Nelson since then and the two are working together to decide what to do next.

JihadWatch‘s Robert Spencer, who has absolutely no academic qualifications that would make him so, has always tried to posit himself as a serious expert on Islam. As time went by, Spencer’s hatred for Islam bubbled to the surface and he could no longer help himself from partaking in kooky conspiratorial talk.

So, President Obama is a secret Muslim, Anthony Weiner is a secret Muslim, and oh yeah, don’t forget that Spencer has linked Adolf Hitler and Nazism to Islam too! Spencer, is the boogieman also Muslim?

This interview with Robert Spencer, the go-to Islam expert for the right wing, offers a taste of the worldview of the Shariah fear-mongering set:

Frontpage: I would like to talk to you today about Anthony Weiner’s marriage to his Muslim Brotherhood wife, Huma Abedin.

How is it exactly that a Muslim woman connected to the Muslim Brotherhood is married to a Jewish man? Something is not fitting here, right?

Spencer: Jamie, Islamic law prohibits a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man. A Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman, but not the other way around. This is yet another manifestation of Islamic supremacism: the idea is that a wife will become a member of her husband’s household, and the children will follow the religion of the father. Thus, Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women ultimately enriches the Islamic community, while the non-Muslim community must forever be made to diminish.

Consequently, when a non-Muslim man begins a relationship with an observant Muslim woman, he is usually pressured to convert to Islam, and such conversion is made a condition of the marriage. Of course, laws are often honored in the breach, and this is not always true. So while we know that Huma Abedin’s parents were devout and observant Muslims — indeed, her father was an imam — we don’t know what exactly is going on with her marriage to Anthony Weiner.

Certainly the most likely scenario is that Weiner did convert to Islam, as Abedin’s mother, a professor in Saudi Arabia, would almost certainly have insisted that he do so. Weiner has made no public statement of this conversion, but since it would almost certainly have cost him politically if he had announced it, this silence is not any indication that he didn’t actually convert.

However, it is also possible, given the recent scandal involving Weiner’s apparently frequent and sexually charged contact with other women, that the rumors that the Abedin/Weiner union is a political marriage of convenience are true. After all, in 2008, Hillary Clinton was running for president. There were widespread insinuations that she was involved in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Abedin, her ever-present personal assistant. Those whisperings persisted into Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. Abedin’s 2010 marriage to Weiner, at which Bill Clinton presided, put those rumors to rest.

In Islamic law, a Muslim must officiate a marriage ceremony; hence if Bill Clinton was the only one officiating, the marriage was not valid according to Islamic law. Huma Abedin would undoubtedly have known that. Thus, if no Muslim was officiating along with Clinton, Weiner would not have had to convert to Islam, as the whole thing was a charade from the outset, apparently entered into with the full awareness of all parties concerned.

Emphasis added.

This is the second time we’ve heard the baseless claim that the very Jewish Weiner might have converted to Islam when he married Huma Abedin.

The important point here is that Spencer is no fringe figure; he’s at the very center of the anti-Muslim movement in the United States. His bio describes the impressive access he has to both mainstream and right-leaning media sources:

His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, the UK’s Guardian, Canada’s National Post, Middle East Quarterly, WorldNet Daily, First Things, Insight in the News, National Review Online, and many other journals.

Spencer has discussed jihad, Islam, and terrorism at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry. He has also appeared on the BBC, ABC News, CNN, FoxNews’s O’Reilly Factor, the Sean Hannity Show, the Glenn Beck Show, Fox and Friends, and many other Fox programs, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span, France24 and Croatia National Televison (HTV), as well as on numerous radio programs including Bill O’Reilly’s Radio Factor, The Laura Ingraham Show, Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, Michael Savage’s Savage Nation, The Sean Hannity Show, The Alan Colmes Show, The G. Gordon Liddy Show, The Neal Boortz Show, The Michael Medved Show, The Michael Reagan Show, The Rusty Humphries Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Barbara Simpson Show, Vatican Radio, and many others. He has been a featured speaker at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, New York University, Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary, Washington University of St. Louis, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and many other colleges and universities.

I asked Spencer about his claim, and he emailed: “If [Weiner] converted, it was almost certainly for convenience, not out of conviction.” Spencer also amended his statement that Weiner “most likely” converted to “most immediately obvious”:

“‘Most likely’ is a bit overstated. That is the most immediately obvious scenario, given Abedin’s background and self-identification as a Muslim. It is, as is obvious from the rest of what I said, not the only possible scenario,” he wrote.

Re: “The Muslim Agenda: Or, How to Infiltrate America by Learning to Love Ridiculously Good Looking People in The Miss USA Pageant”

This is a transcription and translation of a meeting recently held in Arizona, U.S.A, the global headquarters for Evil Muslims Worldwide, Inc.™ Several evil dignitaries were present either in person or via Skype. Their identities have been protected.

——————————————————

A bearded man of average height and brownish hue dismounts his distinguished, but very evil, camel and proceeds to address the distinguished evil guests in a very evil, foreign language.

It seems that our initial plan of violence and intimidation has backfired. Amateurish acts of terrorism in Times Square, failed underwear bombs on airplanes, and the introduction of hummus has done little to curry the favor (Speaker nods to Pakistani Representative) of the American people to our cause.

As you know, we are at the cusp of completely taking over and Islamicizing America. What, with our 0 Muslim Justices on the Supreme Court, 0 Muslim American owners of major media corporations, 2 Muslim American congressmen with impeccable records and high popularity ratings dominating 433 non-Muslim congressmen — and now Obama as president! (Gives a knowing look to the Kenyan Representative for successfully implementing “The Kenyan Birth Agenda”)

Our influential network of covert spies even brainwashed Food Network’s Rachael Ray to wear a keffiyeh during her stint as a Dunkin Donuts-monger! We even have News Commentators imagining using falafels and loofahs to sexually harass their young producers! We’re at the precipice of creating Sharia USA!

However, we need a game changer.

After spending considerable amounts of money and time performing sophisticated research on Google and sifting through countless pages of pornography (for research purposes only), we have discovered the American people do not cower when confronted with terrorism. Also, many are not inspired by complex discussions on foreign policy, and most are not motivated by intellectual debates concerning global affairs.

However, our research has conclusively shown that all Americans respond positively to one thing: hotness.

The point is, gentleman, that hotness, for lack of a better word, is good. Hotness is right, hotness works. Hotness clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary, Islamo-fascism spirit. Hotness, in all of its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind. And hotness, you mark my words, will not only save our “Muslim Agenda,” but also that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

Brief smattering of applause.

I point as Exhibit A this sexy, hot and nude centerfold from Cosmopolitan’s 1982 “America’s Sexiest Man” issue. This red-blooded, all-American hunk is now a full-time Republican senator. Need I say more?

Everyone claps. Moroccan representative looks around scared and asks, ”But how will we use Hotness?”

We will infiltrate and capture America’s attention by hijacking one of their most prized institutions: the Miss USA Beauty Pageant.

Our prototype “fembot” that was originally sent to Wasilla, Alaska, suffered from severe malfunctions that made her preoccupied with moose hunting. Subsequently, she went “rogue.” Nonetheless, she achieved her “divide and conquer” objective and tested our hypothesis: that many Americans would listen to the simplistic rantings of a hot, brunette, former beauty pageant winner with great legs and really white teeth. They will even give her millions for a biography written by someone else. She did a great job in helping our Manchurian candidate, Obama, win the office.

Gentleman, it is time for us to evolve. Judging from America’s newfound obsession with color and globalization, our next “fembot” will be … Arab-American!

There is uproar, commotion and excitement. North Korean representative faints.

She will be a sleeper agent during her youth living comfortably in the Middle East. During her teens, she will be sent to infiltrate the USA. She will be “activated” in her early 20s right as she achieves peak, maximum hotness.

She will create confusion and disunity among the American masses with her excellent English, perfect nose, and assimilation into Western culture, but also throw them off-guard with her multisyllabic last name, dark features and Arab roots.

“Can we please make her blond?” asks the Jordanian leader.

No! Conclusive research has shown that for the first time in American history blond-haired, blue-eyed women are marginalized and unpopular. Just look at how the mainstream media oppressed last year’s runner-up, Miss California Carrie Prejean, who spoke out against gay marriage and suffered painfully with a lucrative settlement and a book deal!

Moreover, this is the perfect opportunity to hijack “hotness” from white blond women with Christian backgrounds and radicalize it with a brown face.

We’ve decided upon Lebanon after careful research. The popular TV show “Monk” stars Tony Shalhoub, a three-time Emmy winner, who is Lebanese American. Old white people love “Monk” and his quirky, obsessive-compulsive brilliance. Tiffany, the ’80s pop starlet, and nostalgic icon for middle-aged baby boomers, is also Lebanese American. And, finally, three extremely HOT women who exemplify ridiculously good-looking hotness are part-Lebanese: Salma Hayek, Shakira and “American Pie’s” Shannon Elizabeth!

We’ve decided in order to successfully infiltrate and destroy the enemy, one must become like the enemy. Our fembot must be able to pass as a liberated, proud Western woman confident and unafraid of her feminine sexuality, but also unwilling to be sexually exploited by men. In order to accomplish this herculean task, she has to master the most intimidating and fearsome obstacle course … the stripper pole.

Yes, the stripper pole, that symbol of female empowerment, must be thoroughly mastered by our fembot. However, we cannot lower our moral standards, so we’ll make sure she does it fully clothed — this will avoid the Vanessa Williams Playboy scandal from the ’80s and oppressed Carrie Prejean nude photo scandal from 2009.

Preferably, our fembot will have to win an amateur pole-dancing competition thrown by a juvenile radio station. Photos of this event will have to eventually resurface on a tawdry online entertainment magazine. This is our double-edged sword strategy. Even if our fembot loses the Miss USA competition, she can have a successful and influential career on television by leaking photos on the Internet and becoming a celebrity overnight for no substantive reason aside from gullibility, shamelessness and YouTube. She can infiltrate American youth by Islamicizing the masses through her own reality show, which will inevitably be given to her by E!

In order to upgrade our fembot, we are seeking uranium-enhanced breast implants, nuclear explosive nipples and yellowcake-padded buttocks. Unfortunately, we were unable to secure the necessary materials, so instead we settled on 6-inch stiletto heels and thongs.

However, we can’t leave anything to chance! We must ensure success, and to do so, we must align ourselves with our secret operatives who will rig the Miss USA pageant in our favor. That’s right — Mexican Americans and illegal immigrants.

We must court power and influence, and no one is more powerful than the dominant illegal immigrant workforce that holds a near monopoly on the thriving and lucrative “field labor” sector of American economy. Indeed, our evidence shows the depths of their immense power and their sly, subversive strategic plotting. They are so shrewd — having taken over America — that they rigged Arizona to create a draconian law that would effectively racially profile them, require them to carry identification at all times, and essentially criminalize their entire existence. They’ve even banned the study of their own ethnicity and history in some Arizona state schools! Now, that’s lateral thinking! And we should give our due respect and props.

If they can rig a state, they can definitely handle a beauty pageant. We will plant a Mexican American judge, preferably an actor on a popular comedy show, who will knock out our closest competition — a very blond, very white and very “real American” — by asking a controversial but relevant questionabout oppressive state laws demonizing immigrants. Our evidence suggests she will answer in favor of Arizona and states’ rights, thereby ensuring the liberal media, another agent in our employment, will unleash the p.c. police and further oppress the white Christian minority by silencing their voice and mocking their opinion.

Malaysian ambassador gets up to ask a question. “This is all fine and dandy, but don’t you think the surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageant will make some commentators suspect “an odd form of affirmative action.” I mean we’re talking about six Muslim women around the world — including our fembot, God willing — in the past five years!

As the archaic and fossilized vestige of blond, Western decadence succumbs to her political incorrectness and dooms herself, our glorious fembot meanwhile shall rise! She will simultaneously support our president’s socialist agenda as well as plant suggestive, subconscious propaganda in the minds of “real” Americans to stop them from breeding, thereby giving us yet another advantage toward Islamicizing the West!

When asked whether contraceptives should be covered by health insurance, fembot will confidently say yes and assert, “I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it’s a controlled substance.”

When she wins the crown and is asked how she feels, we will remind America that our fembot has assimilated and is “one of them” by programming her to feign nervousness and sincerity when she cryptically answers, “Ask me after I had pizza.” However, we all know she secretly wants tabouleh, baba ghanoush and biryani! Ha ha ha!

Everyone laughs. Even North Korea.

And what shall we do on that glorious night that commences our successful infiltration and domination of America with our globalized Muslim, Islamo-pandering agenda? We shall celebrate and laugh at them “from within Dearbornistan’s Hezbollah restaurant, La Pita, where [our] workers [will] openly sing Hezbollah war songs and anti-Semitic ‘ditties’ in the kitchen …where falafel, and hummus, and hate [are] all on the menu.”

Iran asks the final question. ”But what will we name our Femme Bot?”

She will be named Rima Fakih. And she will be our great Fak-you to all the haters.

Wajahat Ali is the author of “The Domestic Crusaders,” a play about Muslim Pakistani Americans that will be published by McSweeney’s in the Fall 2010. He blogs atGoatmilk.

We all have them: crazy uncles or senile grandparents raving about one conspiracy theory or the other on the dinner table. “Man landing on the moon was a big hoax,” or “Elvis really didn’t die but went to live with Mickey Mouse in Disney World.” We’d smile and continue eating our leftover mashed potatoes smothered in gravy, then politely ask to be excused on account of work early the next morning, the car ride back home full of mirthful post-dinner analysis of the crazy dinner table conspiracy talk.

So when we first read about Bat Ye’or, a lady with no educational qualifications to speak of, who came up with the crazy conspiracy theory entitled “Eurabia,” we here atLoonWatch barely reacted. If a zany lady comes up with some insane theory, we’re certainly not going to take her seriously, at least not any more than the crazy old McCain lady.

The sad reality, however, is that Bat Ye’or is now being used by leading Islamophobes as a primary source for their research and subsequent analysis. So who is Bat Ye’or? Well, first of all, her name is not Bat Ye’or. That’s just her “screen-name.” For many years, she kept her real identity a secret, and only wrote under this moniker, which is Hebrew for “daughter of the Nile.” She also had another screen-name, which was Yahudiya Masriya, Arabic for “Egyptian Jewess.” Her real name is Gisele Littman, and she’s vitriolically anti-Muslim and anti-Islam.

She has written a handful of articles and books–with the basic theme that Muslims have savagely oppressed Non-Muslims (“dhimmis”) throughout history. These resources written by her are used as reference sources by famous Islamophobes like Robert Spencer (the face behind the xenophobic websites Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch). Spencer hailed Bat Ye’or as “the pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, of the institutionalized discrimination and harassment of non-Muslims under Islamic law.” Daniel Pipes, an Islamophobic professor, cites her work numerous times. She has emerged from relative obscurity to fame, her work being the backbone of Islamophobic (mis)characterization of Islamic history.

Pamela Geller, admin of the anti-Muslim site Atlas Shrugs, declares: “Bat Ye’or is the world’s foremost leading scholar on Islam.” Amazing how the “world’s foremost leading scholar on Islam” has no educational background and absolutely no credentials at all from a recognized university; truly amazing that anyone can become the world’s leading scholar on Islam with just a library card, a keyboard and internet connection, and of course the key ingredient of all–an all encompassing hatred of Islam. Can one imagine the world’s leading scholar on Judaism being an Anti-Semite? This just in:the world’s foremost leading scholar on Judaism is an Anti-Semitic Hamas member. Absurd!

Bat Ye’or is Not a Scholar

Bat Ye’or is not a scholar; she does not have the credentials of a historian from any recognized university. She is referred to as an “independent researcher,” a euphemism for a random person who goes to the library, opens up some books, and starts writing. Adi Shwartz, a journalist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, rightfully points out Bat Ye’or’s lack of credentials:

Europe allowed the immigration of millions of Muslims to its territories…and will ultimately…transform Europe into a continent under the thumb of the Arab and Muslim world. Europe is dead, and in its stead “Eurabia” has arisen.

This controversial thesis belongs to Bat Ye’or, the pen name of a self-taught Jewish intellectual who was born in Egypt and who currently lives in Switzerland. She refuses to reveal her real name for security reasons, she says, but her thesis is just the prologue to far-reaching conclusions and extreme statements…While her ideas were once almost completely ignored, nowadays, because of the prevailing consternation in Europe regarding its complex relations with the Muslim world, she is receiving more attention, though she is still quite far from entering the European mainstream…

Bat Ye’or’s opinions have made her a controversial figure, as has the fact that she is not an academic and has never taught at any university. She conducts her research independently.

WorldNetDaily is for some strange reason one of the most popular right-wing sites and is frequently sited by Conservative pundits and their underlings. It has given space to a range of strange conspiracy theories and “discredited” ideas such as,

‘9/11 was caused by the immorality of America, promoting the cause of radical Israeli settlers, KGB defector Alexo Litvinenko was a terrorist, Anglo-Saxon identity and White only immigration, Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and not really an American (the Birther hullabaloo), and on and on.

Jerome Corsi, is a staff writer for WND and his inclusion on the site and its popularity is quite mind boggling. Continue reading →